Travelling around while waiting for PR..

[Trav0370]

So I am Canadian, sponsoring american wife to be a Canadian PR with outland application. Very soon she will be "visiting" me for 6 months + extensions etc...

I would like to clear up the air with what is the rules behind visitations to Canada.

Our plan is this:

- visit me in Canada from now until January 2015 (8 months, so 6 month + extension)
- Take a vacation in January to Mexico, which is not her native country.
- Both of us return to canada after vacation.

Is this valid and should we expect problems re-entering canada? Should we be bringing our proof of PR application/marriage etc and all that nonsense with us on the vacation to simply return back to canada? Or... would it be best not to risk that, and simply not vacation outside the country?

Thanks

 

[agarand8]

I think it kind of depends on what the border patrols mood is and what kind of questions they ask you and of course how you answer them.

Generally to come into Canada as a visitor you need to have enough money to support yourself, and prove that you have ties to your home country like a house and a job and that you will eventually leave when your visa expires. I have heard from other people on here Americans who have absolutely no problem going back and forth and getting all kinds of visas and extensions. I have also heard cases where the Canadian is the bread winner and provider and the american has no money and no permanent address. In the second case they usually get hassled quite a bit at the border and were issued a much shorter visa instead of the 6 months they wanted.

I'm not sure exactly how leaving and coming back would work. If you get in with a 6 month visa then say you apply for a 6 month extension, I'm not 100% sure that you can be leaving and coming back unless you make sure that your visa is a multi-entry. Otherwise it would only be single entry and once you leave it becomes void and you have to go through the whole thing again coming back from Mexico.

Advice I've seen on here is to not offer any information unless you are asked and even then answer the questions but don't give them anything extra. Personally when I cross the border they always asking me where I'm going and why, but I'm not sure that "visiting my Canadian husband" is the best answer to give. Even when I enter Costa Rica they have made me buy a return ticket before letting me in, that was a combination of errors though, I was really sick and let my husband fill out the customs card on which he wrote 'resident' instead of 'tourist' and so we get to the front of the line and the guy asks me for my Costa Rican ID card....which I don't have. It was really fun. From now on I always do the paperwork. lol

Hopefully when I bump this to the top we will get some americans to weigh in on their experiences going back and forth.

 

[Alurra71]

So I am Canadian, sponsoring american wife to be a Canadian PR with outland application. Very soon she will be "visiting" me for 6 months + extensions etc...

I would like to clear up the air with what is the rules behind visitations to Canada.

Our plan is this:

- visit me in Canada from now until January 2015 (8 months, so 6 month + extension)
- Take a vacation in January to Mexico, which is not her native country.
- Both of us return to canada after vacation.

Is this valid and should we expect problems re-entering canada? Should we be bringing our proof of PR application/marriage etc and all that nonsense with us on the vacation to simply return back to canada? Or... would it be best not to risk that, and simply not vacation outside the country?

Thanks

Your wife, being American won't need a physical visa to visit. She will either receive a visitor record (attached to her passport) when she first enters, or there will be nothing said and she can remain with you for 6 months. When you apply for her extension online, make a point of stating that you do in fact have an active sponsorship application and that information will more than likely be printed on the bottom of her new visitor record. She should attach this to her passport. When you and she leave Canada for your Mexican vacation her visitor record effectively becomes null and void. Upon return to Canada, she will likely not have an issue getting back in as she is accompanying you and she has a valid visitor extension before her departure. If you carry just the receipts that state you have paid all your fees for her sponsorship along with her visitor record it should be an easy crossing. Just be aware, that she COULD potentially have problems if you get a pi$$y CBSA officer, but the odds are very low.

 

[chala]

Also bear in mind that while on a visitor visa extension, there is no guarantee that they will let you back into Canada after your vacation. The visa document even states that it does not guarantee re-entry to Canada. But its rare that US residents would be barred from re-entering (unless the border officer is really a nut case).

 

[taffy7]

My husband came to visit from the U.K. then we flew out to the Dominican then came back to Canada , then he flew home a few weeks later. Had no troubles. We had not submitted our application at that time, but we were married.